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Hardly a moment seems to have gone by since our last venture into the currency markets. But here we are again and we have lots to catch up on, so let’s get started.

An overview of the currency markets for January 20th – January 24th 2014

The British pound started off with a rate of 1.6441 against the US dollar. However this dropped back to 1.6419 on the first day of the week. Was this the beginning of a long slide? It certainly lost a little more ground the following day and closed on 1.6417 as a result. However the rest of the week produced rather better results to focus on. The high point came on Thursday when the pound reached 1.6597, and although it fell back to 1.6508 the next day this was still better than it had started with.

Our next stop is with the Euro, where the pound began on 1.2103. There was no change on Monday but the pound managed to edge up slightly to 1.2137 on Tuesday. It was a nice surprise then to discover a closing rate of 1.2210 on the following day, but this didn’t stick for the remainder of the week. Instead it fell to 1.2169 on Thursday and even further to 1.2061 by Friday night. It wasn’t much of a drop but we’d have preferred no drop at all.

So where would things stand against the Hong Kong dollar? The pound began with an exchange rate of 12.751 and the first result was not a good one. It fell to 12.736 to close out Monday evening. We then saw a further drop to 12.734 the next day before things started to look up. By Wednesday evening the pound was back in charge against the Hong Kong dollar, finishing on 12.849 as a result. We improved still further to 12.876 the next day, before dropping to close the week on 12.815 on Friday night.

We were close to the two dollar mark against the New Zealand dollar as the week began, claiming 1.9901 in the process. Unfortunately this soon fell to 1.9855 after a day of trading. More bad news came the following day as the pound lost more ground, falling to 1.9771 as a result. Fortunately this would be the lowest point of the week. While the next two days were good and the last one wasn’t, we still managed to end on 1.9972.

Finally the pound began at 1.8706 against the Australian dollar. It dropped throughout the first few days before rising to 1.8910 on Thursday. It improved still further by Friday, finishing on 1.8954 as a result. This was probably one of the stand out good results for the week.

Notable events in the world of currency

A good leg up against the Canadian dollar

We certainly had some good news to celebrate here; the pound began the week on 1.8034 and ended it considerably better off on 1.8261.

But a plummet against the Swiss franc

The pound didn’t do as well here though, falling from 1.4926 to 1.4782.

Better news once more against the Chinese yuan

While the pound was struggling in some areas it was doing better in others. It certainly did well against the yuan, rising from 9.9467 to 9.9879 in the process.

Well it was certainly a strange week in some ways. The pound seemed to be doing well in some areas but then struggled in others. We do see this perhaps more regularly than we think, but it was one of those weeks where you simply didn’t know what was going to happen next.

It was really an average sort of week in the end. The question is whether things will continue in the same vein next week or whether they will improve or get worse. The pound versus the dollar has been interesting to watch lately, so we shall keep watching to see what else is in store.